Kidnapped Dragons

Chapter 412: Epilogue # Yu Jitae: Constellation (8)

He cleaned up the corpses. Even though everything would go back to the past with a regression, Yu Jitae helped baby Bom clean up the dead bodies. 

Her fingertips were trembling as she cleaned up the corpses, and there was an absent-minded look on her face.

“You are?”

“I’m the tutor of the princess.”

Some dragons were displeased by the existence of a human but they didn’t bother telling him off. There were instead some that were surprised because they saw Yu Jitae step up to protect Lugiathan.

It was all going according to his plan, and this was all part of what he had expected.

However, what happened just then was completely unexpected. He hadn’t expected Lugiathan to grab her daughter in the midst of her dead relatives to send their dying memories.

Her obsession with the ‘Grand Schema’ was a lot greater than what he had anticipated.

But anyway, that wasn’t the biggest problem…

〚Stop! You stupid fool! That will kill you for sure!〛

〚Why can you not make a compromise! Why are you standing up for that sinful child who tried to deceive you!〛

The last shout of Sin that told him he would definitely die echoed in his ears. 

All the atrocities committed by ‘Yu Jitae of the 6th iteration’ here were no different from his own past.

He felt like someone was pulling out his past which he wanted to hide as much as possible to flaunt it in front of him. It was painful to watch, and was even frightening.

〚You will definitely die–!!〛

Besides, Sin was perhaps correct. He might really die.

He knew that ever since he came up with the plan and in truth, Yu Jitae long knew how he was doing something very paradoxical and hypocritical.

But as a sinner, he was simply hoping for atonement. 

Won’t everything be fine anyway?

Won’t I, definitely become happy…

After cleaning up the corpses, he realised the regression would begin very soon. He hurriedly took the young Bom away like a kidnapper and headed back to the room behind the throne, [Primal Time].

“Girl. Are you alright.”

At last when there was nobody near them, baby Bom crumbled with her two arms wrapped around herself.

“Girl.”

“Nn.”

Her voice came out normally but her head was lowered and he thus couldn’t see the look on her face.

“Have you calmed down a little? Are you okay.”

“I’m fine. I was just, a bit surprised because it was my first time seeing something like that…”

She was still lowering her head as she dusted off her trembling arms.

Was she really okay?

Yu Jitae reiterated the plan while she was sitting there in silence.

“We don’t have much time. The regression will begin very soon.”

“Nn.”

“Let’s talk about the next iteration. The next time he rewinds everything, I can take responsibility and end his regression and his attacks.”

“Nn.”

“You remember what you have to do right?”

“Nn.”

“Yes. So before the attack, you have to make it as if the [Demonic Sword of Grief] had been stolen to get as many dragons away from the banquet hall as possible.”

“Nn.”

“Or how about we run away together. Without caring about what happens here.”

“Nn.”

“…Girl.”

Yu Jitae called the child.

Perhaps she had been living with so much burden on her shoulders ever since she was tiny, that she was used to saying ‘I’m fine’.

“Pull yourself together first. You don’t need to worry too much. They’ll all come back to life very soon.”

Drip.

Something started to drop – they were her tears.

“…Nn. I’m fine.”

Only then did baby Bom lift her head to look at him. As her head moved, the tears filling her eyes began travelling down her cheeks.

She clenched her lips, as those lips were soon tainted in red from the oozing blood..

Bom had a tendency to bite her lips out of habit whenever her heart was shaken. 

“Hkk…”

This time it was him that had to feel miserable. Baby Bom was having trouble breathing. It was the symptom of hyperventilation that she showed whenever her emotions were out of control.

“Girl. You have to calm down.”

“Hkk. Hulk…”

“Calm down. If you crumble here, the same thing will happen in the 3rd iteration.”

“N, nn… Uhuk…”

It was then.

Time started to rewind itself.

‘He’ must have committed suicide after finishing his calculations.

“Look. Hnn? It’s all going back.”

However, it seemed that his words had failed to reach the young Bom. She tightened her heart and continued sobbing. After a while, she raised her head back up with her face no longer being able to hide the signs of tears.

“I’m scared…”

Her soft voice spread like ripples. The child who had been acting mature ever since their first encounter was starting to crumble.

“It’s, too scary… W, what if I d, do something wrong…?”

She covered her eyes with her palms and started sobbing out loud.

There were only approximately 5 hours left now.

Yu Jitae took a deep breath in. He was in a very big hurry and had a lot of things to do, but the situation didn’t allow him to rush the child.

It was natural for her to be scared. Even though she had been taking lessons that were close to tortures, Bom in front of his eyes was still just a very feeble and young existence.

*

Baby Bom stopped her tears.

Now wasn’t the time to do this and she knew it.

“S, sorry. I know we don’t have much time but… I think I have to calm down a bit. Can you give me some time…?”

After somehow stopping her tears, she asked her tutor. He nodded back as the young Bom pulled the veil slightly to the side and gazed outside. 

Bom stayed like that for a few minutes with her eyes fixated on the stars outside the opened window.

Her tutor curiously asked her.

“What are you looking at?”

“Stars…”

“Stars? Why.”

“Hmm. The place I get trained directly by my mum also has a window. There are always stars in the sky.”

Baby Bom collected her breath and continued.

“Mum told me to look at stars if it was too tiring. She said that’s where our homeland is…”

However, her breath wasn’t returning to her.

Those astonishing memories surged back up in her mind. The death of the old lady that used to take good care of her; and the young man who always gave her deep bows, as well as many others.

Her heart started to ache. The pain continued to her fingertips and made them shiver out of control.

Tears budded in her eyes again. Even though she wasn’t a kid like her sister, she still couldn’t hold her tears in.

“…But, I don’t think that’s very helpful.”

Since it felt like she would crumble to her knees and weep out loud if she continued breathing, the young Bom held her breath. However, the tears instead formed a lump in her throat without going away.

It was then.

A hand large enough to cover her face landed above her head.

“Girl.”

She slightly turned around and found the tutor right next to her pointing at the window of the banquet hall.

“Look closely.”

“…”

His finger was pointing at the stars which she had already been looking at.

What about that place? It’s not that helpful…

Despite thinking that, she followed his words and looked at the sky again. There were countless dots of stars in the black space. To baby Bom who wasn’t very interested in emotional sceneries, it just looked like sparkling things.

It was then.

“You see the big star in the middle.”

“Nn?”

“Connect that big star to the big one on the right. That creates a line, yes.”

“…Nn.”

“Let’s connect that to the big star at the bottom, and to the three diagonal ones on the left of that.”

“…”

The young Bom obediently did as she was told.

“Lastly, let’s connect that back to the first big star and have a look. What does that look like.”

“An arrowhead?”

“Arrowhead. I can see that.”

Baby Bom was a little displeased by his words. Was this like a play for kids? What meaning was there to connecting a few dots and seeing that as a picture?

Staring at the stars, her tutor continued.

“The ones that used to use sorcery in the past connected stars like what we did just then and thought of them as one big picture. It wasn’t very meaningful.”

“Nn…”

“However, things were different when those weak humans went out to the sea. Ah, do you know what a sea is?”

“I do. They said it’s a place with a lot of water.”

“Yeah. Humans can’t fly like you dragons, and did not have the technology to find the right direction nor could they use mana. However, they still had to proceed to the sea.”

It was a technical and not an emotional story. Baby Bom was still young and was distracted fairly easily. Although the astonishing scenery was still glimmering in her mind, she was slightly intrigued by his story.

“And?”

“Back then, it was impossible to even think about going off into the distance. It was at least better off when they were close enough to see the land, but what would it be like during the night?”

Saying that, her tutor used those large hands to cover her eyes. Even though she was a little surprised, she stayed still.

“How is it. Can you see?”

“No…”

“It was probably the same for them. When the sun sets, it becomes very dark and humans have trouble seeing what’s ahead of them. They must have been afraid and concerned about whether they were heading down the correct path.”

“Nn.”

“The only source of light was in the sky so they would have looked above. And this must have been what those humans saw back then.”

Her tutor created a small gap between his fingers.

“What do you see.”

A part of her vision that had been blocked returned to her. What her eyes spotted was the black sky, stars and the few stars that shone brighter than others.

It had a shape that now seemed obvious after perceiving it once.

“…An arrowhead?”

“Yes. They saw the things that always stayed there to find the direction. Humans call them constellations.”

Baby Bom widened her eyes.

“The shape is not important, and it’s up to you how you label them. There is no system; you just connect them the way you want and accept it.”

“…”

“When those trivial dots get grouped into one, they lead a ship to their destination from the darkness, and guide the lost crew back home.”

“…”

She imagined his words in her head as something magical began to happen. Surprisingly, baby Bom felt her heart being a little more relaxed.

He did not rush her and instead, he quietly waited for her to calm down.

When she managed to collect her breath, he asked her.

“Do you remember what you have to do?”

“Nn… Using the [Demonic Sword of Grief] to take as many of my family out of the banquet hall as possible.”

“Yes. Taking the sword and heading outside the palace is probably the safest method, yes?”

“Nn. I think that’s what I’ll do.”

“Alright. After you leave the palace, if you feel too nervous then turn to the sky. If you don’t know where to go, run towards the arrowhead.”

His voice was soft and dry.

It was powerless and fatigued.

“Then no matter how shaken and hopeless it might seem, you will be able to reach your destination.”

But it nonetheless strongly echoed in her ears.

“…Nn.”

Baby Bom gained courage.

***

After going outside for a bit, Bom took the two treasures, [Ever-Fragrant Flower] and [Nigh Perfect Truth] and gave it to him. Those were the ones that had disappeared from his body due to the regression.

In response, Yu Jitae got rid of all the [Chains of Hell] that were entangling her wrists, ankles and her neck.

“Off you go.”

“Nn.”

Baby Bom was about to raise her body and go outside, but suddenly stopped and turned around.

“You are going to be okay, right?”

There was a scar on his nose that had yet to heal properly. 

He returned a nod.

“You’re not going to die or anything right?”

“Yeah. I won’t die.”

“Okay. Don’t die…”

Leaving those words behind, the young Bom teleported away. The fact that she was able to use a dimensional movement spell even in a world interpreted by Conceptualisation proved her proficiency at it. It was probably at her mother’s level.

However, the trace left behind after her movement was very coarse, and it was hardly a skill that could be used with ease.

Yu Jitae stared at the [Chains of Hell] that were left on his hands, before pulling them from the dimensional fissures that used to move around with Bom. 

They were longer than he expected so he had to pull them for a long time. They were long enough to reach her no matter where she was in the palace.

After taking those chains, he also lifted his body.

There wasn’t much time left.

He checked the interior design again.

This banquet hall which was located at the very centre of the large palace had four pillars supporting most of the weight above. 

‘He’ would come in from the second window from south-west, at the bearing of 225°. The first missile would be coming in from the same place.

The Great Barrier flowed like an ocean wave and there were constant changes to the hard and soft areas of the barrier. The missile had been fired at the opportune timing after calculating that gap so the attack would always be coming from the same direction at the same time.

Since ‘he’ would be moving based on the memories of the previous iterations, the man would come in without even bothering to check the inside. Because to an existence that forever regressed to the same point in time, there could be zero variables. 

In turn, the moment ‘he’ discovers a variable in the iterations, ‘he’ will begin to doubt everything and be more meticulous with learning the situation.

Yu Jitae took a deep breath out.

That was why he had only one opportunity in his hands.